Katalena Akulov
"We're not here to take part! We're here to take over!" History Katalena Akulov was raised by her single father, an ingenious Coalition military scientist who specialized in weapons science. She was a quiet girl in her youth, as was a bit of an introvert. Her father did not allow her to move away, so she was often at his side once she graduated from a private high school. Despite this, she rarely, if ever, interacted with her father, and only communicated with him through maids. When she was twenty, he moved them to a research facility somewhere underground on a planet she knew not the name of nor where it was. She took the opportunity to learn more about her father's trade in this time. She, her father, and her father's workers that were on site used the underground facility as a shelter when the Skulblaka invaded the plane. Life was normal for her, as no Skulblakan ever even made contact with the facility at any time. However, when Clara Renner merged the two planes together, Katalena was the second recorded human (the first being Morrigan Sigurdson to develop Skulblakan abilities, developing them only weeks after the merging, compared the average year or two that it took for the powers to manifest. Her father, upon discovering what she could do, had her captured and experimented on before she learned to control her powers, which were later identified as Skulblakan Chaos Magic. During this time, she went through severe mental trauma that, when it was over, strengthened her mental fortitude, but also warped her mind and personality into a representation of her powers. Her emotions became so chaotic that not even the strongest psychic could tell what she could do. This also made her immune to any form of mental manipulation from others. Once she had learned to control her abilities, her father tested them against civilians on a neighboring world, and then fashioned a small prison that had cells designed to contain Skulblakan power use within them, preventing any form of escape, and was placed in one, trapped in total isolation for two years before her father began bringing in other people like her. She was given the designation "The Chaotician", which served as a mix of the words Chaos and Magician. Her isolation over, she started to get to know the other prisoners, the other people that were like her. After her father was dealt with, Katalena formed a society of Skulblakan-Humans that took a hard stance against the Coalition's shunning of their race. Katalena also became hell bent on the death of Void, who had killed Nick Grant. She began to investigate this by returning to her father's old facility and digging up the cryotube that still housed the Skulblaka. She snuck the Skulblaka to her new home and began experimenting on her DNA to search for the counter to Void's powers. This later backfired, as a betrayal by Aednat Callaghan and Rhett Progmer resulted in Coalition forces discovering this, culminating in an invasion force attacking Katalena's people. The Skulblakan-Humans, now under the name of the Hybrids and lead by Morrigan Sigurdson defended Katalena as their leader tried desperately to learn of what could kill the one known as Void. It was only the timely interventions of Assassin Serra Urec and the anonymous Loran Bendak that bought her the time to make any headway. However, as she was unable to find what could kill Void, she tapped into Vythica's knowledge of Chaos Magic, allowing Katalena a far greater understanding of the limits of her abilities. With that, she joined the battle in time to see Serra defeat Caden Ferran, leader of the human attack force. Serra proceeded to negotiate a ceasefire in exchange for the surrender of the Hybrids. Katalena accepted and ordered her people to stand down. Later, however, they realized the attack had resulted in the escape of the Skulblaka from the cryotube. Katalena was later seen screaming her frustrations at the one largely responsible for it, Aednat. Katalena was later offered a choice between prison time and service to a group known as the Dawn Crusaders, led by Vitor Rogan. Katalena, along with Morrigan, Vivien McIntyre, Axel Gustafsson, and Mason Young joined them, mostly in the interests of attaining a better future for their people. Years later, Katalena developed a friendship with the eighteen year old Keryn Renner, and kept the brief relationship between Keryn and Mason as secret as possible in the interests of keeping Mason's head atop his shoulders. She would also begin to form a friendship with Keryn's younger brother, Jace Ferran once his Skulblakan Powers began to manifest. By the time Jace was twenty, the two had become very close. Katalena would go on to help lead the crusade into the Aryoril galaxy to rescue Clara, eventually, alongside Mason Young, killing the Skulblaka. She, along with the other hybrids, would reunite with Aednat later on and reconcile with one another. Following the mission, Katalena entered a relationship with fellow Hybrid Jace Ferran and started to work as a recruiter and also worked strike ops for the Hybrids, alongside her new partner, Quinn Marshall. Following the discovery of the Vakning, Katalena was one of the first to throw themselves into personal research at attaining Vakning. She would become the third Hybrid to attain it, though never unleashed it for any to see. Personality and Traits Prior to her torture and experimentation, Katalena was quite introverted and quiet, never one to speak her mind or speak out of turn, unless prompted to. She was highly intelligent, passing through private school quite easily, and often occupied herself learning languages for enjoyment. Katalena was also a film enthusiast, and spoke often of film-making once she graduated. She learned english, gaelic, icelandic, french, and german before her father whisked her away to his secret facility. However, after her experimentation, her mind became as chaotic as her magical powers, completely unpredictable in all forms. However, it was a controlled and calculated chaos, one that only she can understand. In fact, a psychic that attempted to control her mind quickly lost his own sanity in the process. Her powers, which developed in her due to the merging of Earth Plane and the Skulblaka's plane, were identified as Skulblakan Chaos Magic four weeks after they had manifested. The abilities were visually shown as red and purple orbs and her eyes glowing. The magic allows her to induce chaos in anything, allowing her to bend nearly anything to her will. The ultimate limits are her own imagination. When her father had her test these abilities on civilians, she proved to be very destructive, annihilating an entire metropolis in an hour. The only negative is that she cannot reverse the chaos spells, only cancel them while they are in progress, which can either save the target or make things much worse. As Katalena's powers developed, she discovered dozens of new uses for her abilities. Inducing chaos in different ways would allow her to do near everything, from levitation to complete physical annihilation, she realized the possibilities were about as limited as her imagination (so not very much). She eventually even learned that she could induce chaos in other peoples' abilities, causing them to go out of whack and malfunction. After her inner chaos was taken by Anthony, Katalena would lose a large portion of her power for a period of time, until she learned to replace the inner chaos was other, more pure and true feelings of focus and her desire to help her people. The result of this caused her to develop a level of power near that of her original Vakning, and was able to uproot and float mountains without knowing it, based on the power generated by her meditations. This would also cause her mind to calm significantly, leading to her leaving behind leadership roles in favor of a slightly calmer life. Post-Collapse, Katalena's powers were diminished by the massive planar merging, and she was forced to adapt to the new world around her. She underwent basic weapons and armor training, and began to rely more on her wits when using her powers. She could still generate shields and use effective telepathy and telekinesis through her Chaos Magic, but gone were her abilities to sunder mountains with her thoughts. She began to require greater effort and concentration to effectively wield her powers. Per her estimation, at her most powerful in the years immediately following the Collapse, she would be able to stop a flying corvette with great effort. This, in conjunction with her continued operations with Zeta Wing led to her becoming much more of a team player and a more trusting individual as a whole. Relationships *'Jace Ferran:' Katalena initially didn't acknowledge Jace's existence as he was the son of someone she hated, but following his development of Hybrid Powers and his reaching adulthood, the two began to form a close friendship that eventually led to a romantic relationship. Katalena thinks of Jace as being her conscience, heart, and, following the events of 2369, her judgement as well. He is the most important person to Katalena and she is fiercely loyal and protective of him. *'Morrigan Gustafsson:' Following their time both together and apart during the beginnings of Hybrid existence, the two became the closest of friends and each others most personal confidant. Even when put into conflict with one another, their bond persists and they remain close. Katalena views Morri as the best of their people and Morri is incredibly important to her. *'Quinn Marshall:' While initially enemies pitted against one another by Katalena's adoptive father, they grew closer through their friendships with Morrigan, and eventually discovered that they were twin siblings, children of evil hybrid Vladimir Akulov and a Skulblakan woman. The two began to bond and grow closer as siblings following this. During the Alienage Crisis the two became at odds through their methodology, and eventually separated to handle threats across the universe differently. They would foster a true sibling relationship following the Alienage Crisis and the two became close in spite of the physical distance between them. Gallery KataEpic.gif|Katalena in the early stages of her abilities. KataShield.gif|Kata creating a shield with her powers. KataEyes2.gif|Kata's eyes returning to normal. KataRoom.jpg|Kata in one of her rooms. KatatheBamf.gif|Kata attacking a victim. KataShieldPowerThing.gif|Kata using a shield. KataArmor.jpg|Katalena in her combat armor, which she started using after the Alienage Crisis. BlondeKata.png|Katalena incognito following the collapse. Katalena_Armor.jpg|Katalena's Skulblakan-Ore Nanotech armor. KataCannon.jpg|Katalena's hand cannon, forged and enchanted for her by her daughter, Rayvn. Category:Skulblakan-Human Hybrids